Our Saturday mornings are now spent at T-Ball, and I think Harry actually is liking it. And for most of the time, he is paying attention. But I must say a T-Ball game is baseball in sloooooooowwwww motion. Case in point: Harry hits the ball but must have a minute of coaxing before he drops the bat and then runs to the base. (You can hear Daddy in the background :)

And here he is running to third base, and then home. (He's in the red helmet.) Yay Harry! But I love the amount of direction - and the number of dads - involved in pulling off the homerun.

Harry and Max often demand that bedtime songs be written on the fly to suit their whims. Last night, Max asked for a song about "M&Ms." Several months ago, during the duo's obsession with railroad crossings, I wrote a song about such crossings. Now, BOTH Rob and I have to sing the song separately each night, as if we are in a talent show competition. Max also sings along, which I find quite adorable, but you be the judge.

Two years ago, Max tricked me, which now that I know him seems appropriate. With Harry arriving three weeks early, I was sure this baby would arrive early as well. And, fittingly, we had amazingly real "early" labor starting a month early with Max, so real-seeming that we called doulas and doctors, and sent Harry to friends and family certain that a baby would be arriving early. BUT after weeks of serious labor pains, my due date of May 3 came and went with no baby. Then once he had made it PAST the day he was expected, Max decided it was time. On May 4th, Mom's labor didn't stop this time. We sent Harry to Beth's for the third or fourth time. Rob called work and said "It has to be for real this time." And it was. Although, like he does everything else, Max followed the lead of brother, and turned his head at the last minute to make for a difficult delivery, but we were so so happy to greet this little guy two years ago today.

And after two years of Max, we know the following:

--You are so handsome and charming. You have lucked out with Daddy/Grammy's long, long eyelashes, brother's cheeks, and beautiful brown eyes.

--You have such dramatic/comedic expressions, but are prone to devilish ones. You take great glee in getting away with something or doing something that prompts Mommy or Daddy to chase you.

--You LOVE trains and rocketships. Your mind is often in space, even when eating.

--You love "E-ya. Be-ya." or Ella Bella, which is Mommy's longtime pet name for Ella the cat. If you ever break loose from anyone's sight, you are found standing next to Ella, petting her or trying to feed her a puff, or hand her a lego.

--You are very smart. For months, you have been able to identify Saturn, Earth, Jupiter, satellites and other planets. We suspect Brother has something to do with this.

--You choose the path of most resistance for everything.

--You have great rhythm and love to sing "Life is a Highway."

--You are very serious about playing three things : "Mah-kers" or markers, Legos and puzzles. You will sit down with paper and washable (of course) markers and make impressive pictures. You will also sit for quite some time with Legos and build "rockets" or "towers." You and brother get very serious about putting together our space puzzle, and I'm so amazed by how much you do yourself. One time, after you whined for help, Ana told you that you could do it yourself, 10 minutes later you emerged with a finished section, so proud. From my office, I heard you say "Yook! Yook! Ana! Puzzle!" Then you said "Show Mommy!" A few seconds later, my door burst open and you said "Yook Mommy!" and you had indeed put together a whole section of the puzzle, way earlier than I ever expected.

--The most influential person in your life is Bru-yer. If he makes an expression, a noise, a move, you imitate it. He sometimes encourages you to do things you shouldn't because he knows you will do it. But you have taught him a lot too. You've taught him to rebound from things better. He laughs the most and hardest because of you.

Simply put, you see things eye to eye:

When you had to go away to the sleep center for an overnight sleep study, brother had overheard enough to know what was happening. And when the time came for you to leave, Brother burst into tears. He couldn't tell us exactly why he was crying, but finally when we said "are you worried about Max?" he nodded and seemed to be able to vent out his emotions. When you were at the sleep center, and had wires attached to you, the first thing you said to me was "See bru-yer?" Ugh. You two fill my heart. We came home and Brother woke right up and ran out to see you. You are his best friend.

Your "guys" have grown over the past year. The first year it was puppy and froggy. But in the past year, we have added Big Elmo, Blankie and other Froggie. Although both froggies are pronounced as "Shoggies." And the whole crew is referred to as "Need Puppa, shoggie, bankie, elmo, and oder shoggie" all without pause.

When you wake in the morning, you try to carry all of them with you out of the crib, which is quite a feat.

You like sweets, well maybe LOVE sweets. We gave you a milkshake at the train restaurant we went to for you birthday. Once you had one taste, your mouth did not lift from the straw, for fear, I think, that someone might take it away. You drank the whole milkshake without once removing your mouth from the straw. Rob was very concerned about an ice cream headache, but it didn't seem to be a problem.

Riding the train at the choo-choo restaurant.

Did I mention that Bru-yer, Japes (James) and Mommy were also on the train car?

You love the Happy Birthday song.

Cousin James and Harry riding another train.

After the train restaurant, we went to the old train park and got to climb on them with Papa.

These are not real train tracks, but a real freight train passed on those tracks behind us, which was VERY exciting for the boys!